for you are good, good, good;
your love goes on and on.
Let all the redeemed say so,
and say so loudly—
all those whom you redeemed
from the hand of our foes,
all those you gathered
out of the darkness,
and brought from distant places
to your side.
You have redeemed those who wandered in wastelands,
empty and alone.
You have redeemed those who were hungry and thirsty,
and feeling their lives ebbing away.
But when we cried out to you in our trouble,
you delivered us from our distress.
You have certainly led me by a straight way
to find my home in you.
I give thanks to you, LORD, for your unfailing love
and your wonderful works in my life,
for you satisfy my thirst
and fill me with good things.
Without you, I would be sitting in darkness
and deepest gloom,
a prisoner in chains of my own making,
the victim of my own rebellion,
suffering for my failure to heed the counsel of the Most High.
I deserve nothing but bitter labor,
the most severe punishment.
But I cried to you, LORD,
and you gave me light for darkness,
beauty for ashes,
joy for sorrow,
clean robes for my filthy rags.
You brought me out of darkness
and deepest gloom
and broke my chains.
I give you thanks, LORD, for you are good, good, good;
your love goes on and on,
for you burst through my prison walls
and cut through bars of iron.
Without you, I would be a fool
confounded by my own rebellious ways
and suffering because of my many sins.
I would be too sick to enjoy anything,
and would loathe my life.
But I cried to you, LORD,
and you delivered me,
you spoke your word and healed me;
you brought my life out of the grave.
I give thanks to you, LORD, for your unfailing love
and your wonderful works in my life.
I will sacrifice to you
as a way of giving thanks;
I will tell of your works
with exuberant songs.
Like others, I have been on the sea in ships;
I have seen your power
displayed in the mighty waters.
I have seen your works, LORD,
in the panoply of the heavens,
in the fecundity of the forest,
in the silence before the storm,
in the intricacy of an insect.
I have seen you work in a human soul,
in a frail human body,
in a miraculous work of grace.
I give you thanks, LORD,
for your marvelous love,
for your miraculous mercy to me.
I will lift your praises high and loud
when the people assemble,
and will praise you in the council of the elders.
You turn rivers into a desert,
flowing springs into thirsty ground,
and fruitful land into a salt waste,
because of the wickedness of men.
But you also turn the desert into pools of water
and parched ground into flowing springs
for those who wait on you
and please you.
Please tell me we've seen enough
oppression, calamity and sorrow for now.
Lift the needy out of their affliction
and increase their families like flocks.
Let the upright see and rejoice,
but all the wicked--shut their mouths!
Make us wise,
in the things that matter to you,
and show to us your great love, O Lord.
Amen.
(photo via pixabay.com)
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